Padlocks have long been used to secure lockers, lockboxes and various other enclosures. Conventional padlocks have been quite susceptible to being cut and removed by a thief. This can result in locked valuables being stolen.
Various audible alarms have been developed for sounding an alert when the bent locking arm of the padlock is cut. These known alarms exhibit a number of shortcomings. For one thing, they invariably feature fairly complicated wiring that is run through the lock arm of the padlock. Such items are expensive and typically impractical to manufacture and market. In addition, conventional padlock alarms often do not successfully deter a thief because as soon as one side of the bent arm is cut and the alarm sounds, the arm may be pivoted open by the thief and the padlock removed. This allows the thief to quickly remove locked valuables from the enclosure and depart the scene before the alarm has sounded long enough to effectively alert others of the theft. The same problem is exhibited with conventional padlocks lacking an alarm. As soon as the bent arm is cut, the arm may be quickly pivoted open and removed. Simply adding an audible alarm to the padlock has reduced but certainly not eliminated this problem.